Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players · Kibitzing

Boris Spassky

BORIS SPASSKY (born Jan-30-1937, died Feb-27-2025, 88 years old) Russia PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] Boris Vasilievich Spassky was born in Leningrad, USSR. As a child, in 1943, he escaped from the siege of the city by German forces. Spassky first attracted international attention by finishing equal fourth at Bucharest (1953), celebrating his sixteenth birthday during the event. (Alexander Tolush won, his finest career achievement.) In 1955 Spassky won the World Junior Chess Championship. Spassky tied for third at the USSR Championship (1955) with World Champion Botvinnik, future champion Tigran Petrosian, and Georgy Ilivitsky, half a point behind Smyslov and Geller, who tied for first. Spassky's performance at the Gothenburg Interzonal (1955) made him, up to that date, both the youngest grandmaster ever, and the youngest ever to qualify for the Candidates tournament. Smyslov won the Amsterdam Candidates (1956). In 1956, Spassky tied with Mark Taimanov and Yuri Averbakh for first place at the USSR Championship (1956). He fell ill and finished last among the three players in the playoff. Many people expected Spassky to be world champion before his 25th birthday, but his fifth place in the Soviet Championship of 1958 was not enough to qualify him for the Portoroz Interzonal. This was due to a last-round loss to Mikhail Tal (Spassky vs Tal, 1958), which shook him deeply. After winning one of the four semi-finals by finishing equal first with Rashid Nezhmetdinov Leningrad champion of 1959 [rusbase-1] and 1961 [rusbase-2] and finally Soviet Champion in 1961 [rusbase-3]. Winner of the Russian Zonal [rusbase-4]. Spassky shared the first place with Smyslov and Bent Larsen at Amsterdam 1964 http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/646.... In 1965 he eliminated Paul Keres, Efim Geller and Mikhail Tal. He faced Tigran Petrosian in the Petrosian - Spassky World Championship Match (1966), but narrowly lost. As the losing player in the title match, Spassky automatically qualified for the next Candidates cycle, where he overcame Geller, Larsen and Korchnoi. He again faced Petrosian in the 1969 World Championship, and this time prevailed. Spassky's style of play can be described best as lively and adaptable; this produced many brilliant victories. A position based on his victory in 1960 against David Bronstein was used in the James Bond movie, From Russia With Love. His polite, friendly disposition and entertaining games made him one of the most popular world champions. In the West, his tournament victory at Santa Monica 1966 is the most remembered http://www.worldchesslinks.net/ezqa.... In 1972, Spassky was challenged by Robert James Fischer for the World Championship; Spassky lost, 12½-8½, ending the reign of nearly 25-year Soviet hegemony over the World Championship. In the next year Spassky won the Soviet Championship ahead of many world-class grandmasters, [rusbase-5], including Anatoly Karpov. In the next series of Candidates matches, Spassky defeated Robert Byrne, but lost to Karpov in their 1974 semifinal match. In 1977 he lost the Candidates final to Viktor Korchnoi, after eliminating Vlastimil Hort and Lajos Portisch. In 1992, Spassky played a rematch with Fischer for US $5 million and lost once again, 10 to 5 (with 15 draws). Spassky died in Moscow on February 27, 2025. Wikipedia article: Boris Spassky https://nsn.fm/sport/umer-10-i-chem... Last updated: 2025-02-28 17:12:50

Try our new games table.

page 1 of 100; games 1-25 of 2,491  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Smyslov vs Spassky 1-0 21 1948 Simul B76 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack 2. Spassky vs Rodgaisky 0-1 8 1948 URS B45 Sicilian, Taimanov 3. Korchnoi vs Spassky 1-0 12 1948 Leningrad B71 Sicilian, Dragon, Levenfish Variation 4. Spassky vs Shman 1-0 35 1948 Trud Ch D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 5. Spassky vs A Nikitin   ½-½ 20 1949 Ch URS (team) (juniors) A18 English, Mikenas-Carls 6. V Liavdansky vs Spassky 0-1 51 1949 Leningrad Junior Championship B23 Sicilian, Closed 7. Spassky vs A Vilup 1-0 27 1949 Leningrad Junior Championship D30 Queen's Gambit Declined 8. Spassky vs S Avtonomov 1-0 21 1949 Leningrad Junior Championship D28 Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical 9. Korchnoi vs Spassky 0-1 51 1949 Leningrad Junior Championship B71 Sicilian, Dragon, Levenfish Variation 10. V P Zakharov vs Spassky   1-0 55 1949 Leningrad Junior Championship B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 11. Spassky vs Polugaevsky   ½-½ 15 1950 USSR Junior Team Championship D31 Queen's Gambit Declined 12. M Aizenshtadt vs Spassky 0-1 33 1951 Chigorin Memorial qual-12 D50 Queen's Gambit Declined 13. Y Gusev vs Spassky 0-1 24 1951 URS-ch qf A00 Uncommon Opening 14. Y Estrin vs Spassky 0-1 19 1951 URS-ch qf C44 King's Pawn Game 15. Korchnoi vs Spassky 0-1 47 1952 Leningrad D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 16. Spassky vs J Yuchtman 1-0 28 1952 URS-chT Juniors E28 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch Variation 17. Levenfish vs Spassky ½-½ 32 1952 Leningrad D71 Neo-Grunfeld 18. G Chepukaitis vs Spassky 0-1 35 1952 Minsk C31 King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit 19. Taimanov vs Spassky ½-½ 59 1952 Leningrad D45 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 20. Furman vs Spassky 0-1 36 1952 Leningrad D43 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 21. B Vladimirov vs Spassky 0-1 27 1953 Leningrad D25 Queen's Gambit Accepted 22. Petrosian vs Spassky ½-½ 15 1953 Bucharest D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 23. Spassky vs Smyslov 1-0 35 1953 Bucharest E31 Nimzo-Indian, Leningrad, Main line 24. V Ciocaltea vs Spassky ½-½ 21 1953 Bucharest C50 Giuoco Piano 25. Spassky vs Z Milev 0-1 69 1953 Bucharest D87 Grunfeld, Exchange  page 1 of 100; games 1-25 of 2,491

REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Spassky wins | Spassky loses

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 36 OF 99 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jan-30-08    Riverbeast: Happy Birthday, Boris! You will always be remembered as a great champion, and a wonderfully talented player. Perhaps more importantly, you were a gentleman and a great ambassador for the game of chess. Jan-30-08    Gypsy: <Happy birthday, champ!> I second that. Jan-30-08    mateifl: Happy Birthday to a great player ! Jan-30-08    HNP: Boris Spassky was always my favourite player, ever since I read 'Fischer-Spassky, Move by Move' at the age of eight or nine! I sympathized with Boris in that match - Fischer was such a nasty, horrid man. I loved Boris's versatile style, especially his brilliant attacking play. It was with some shock that I learned, only recently, of Boris's appalling anti-Semitic behaviour a few years ago, for which he doesn't even have Fischer's excuse of being mad as a hatter. Although maybe calling for the abolition of Jewish organizations in a country you haven't lived in for 30 years is a sign of madness... Happy birthday anyway, Boris Vasilyevich. Feb-01-08    Riverbeast: <HNP> I didn't know about Spassky signing that letter. I just read about it. A disappointment to say the least, I hadn't expected that from him. Feb-02-08    brankat: Spassky in a new role: the Chief Arbiter of the Moscow Open! Feb-02-08    slomarko: which letter are you talking about? Feb-02-08    Zygote: Maybe the name should be changed to <borRis Spassky> as is given in Fischer's new book (if it is really by fischer) My 61 Memorable Games... Feb-03-08    Zonszein: I thought he had appologized for that letter Feb-05-08    brankat: He had. Apparently, if one can believe it, Spassky didn't even read the letter before signing it. Talking about being lazy :-) Feb-05-08    slomarko: what letter did he sign????? Feb-05-08    littlefermat: Apparently he's always been anti-semetic. In the book "The Endgame" By Dominic Lawson, it talks about the Short-Kasparov WCC of 1993. In it, there's a passage about how Short wanted to see if Spassky could give him some regular lessons (as both players had a similar style and approach), but Short quit shortly after because he couldn't stand Spassky's racist remarks about Jews. Sad, but true. Feb-05-08    kellmano: I take anything Short says with a pinch of salt. Like Slomarko though, I have no idea what letter you are talking about. I like HNP's <he doesn't even have Fischer's excuse of being mad as a hatter.> Feb-05-08    Billy Ray Valentine: Boris is anti-semitic? I've never heard that. I would be surprised if this is true I thought I read that one of his parents was Jewish. Feb-05-08    alexmagnus: He actually <did> sign "the letter of 5000". Even more, he was one of the first signers of it. never heard of an apology from him. Feb-05-08    alexmagnus: For those who don't know what letter it is about: here is its original text in Russian: http://www.pravaya.ru/expertopinion... Feb-05-08    Billy Ray Valentine: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai... Feb-05-08    MichAdams: Interesting letter. If I knew Russian, it might be even more so. Feb-05-08    Riverbeast: People will almost always disappoint you...Spassky was one of the men I really looked up to in the chess world. It was rumored Spassky had a jewish parent, but apparently it's not true. Anti-Jewishness is endemic in Russia. They were always annoyed that most of their best players were Jews. Feb-05-08    Zonszein: I even think that I would prefer not to have personaly met Beethoven or Mozart. To say anything about Spassky and Fischer.. These two seem to belong to the kind of people that you look up to, but better don't meet them Exactly the opposite like say: Kate Morgant, my coworker..she's not very brilliant (perhaps), but G.od! Feb-05-08    tud: Spassky is not Jewish and this is not a sin, however being anti-semite is not a sin also, is just plain dangerous stupidity. Feb-06-08    brankat: On many players' pages, including Spassky's, one often (too often) reads about "Jewish, Jewishness, anti-semitism" etc. Makes me wonder. A lot of French don't like Germans, Poles..Russians, Russians..Germans, Germans..Poles and Checks, English... French, French...English, Croats...Serbs, vice versa, Americans...Mexicans, vice...versa, Chinese...Japanese, vice ...versa, and on and on and on. Add to it all sorts or religious intolerances, hatreds. None of the above, except for some anti-American sentiment in last few years, is hardly ever mentioned around here, indeed, around anywhere. Only, and constantly: Jewish, anti-Jewish etc. Why? After all there are hundreds upon hundreds of nations on this planet. Not any "worse", nor any "better". Holocaust? Others too, most notably all Slavs, especially Russians, fared the same, if not worse. So, then why? Feb-06-08    alexmagnus: <brankat> There are several reasons. First: the roots of <modern> anti-semitism can be traced back as far as 1150, I guess no other folk was encountered hate as much as Jews were. Second: religious background. While all other "conflicts" are pure nationalistic, many anti-semits attack not so much Jews as Judaism (somehow forgetting thereafter that not all Jews believe in Judaism...). Third: Jews are everywhere, while other folks mostly live in their states and are hardly seen outside of it. Even after Israel was grounded, there are much more Jews outside of the Jewish national state than inside it (has any other folk such a bizzarre constellation?). This third reason makes anti-semitism the only "global" type of a nation-based hate (together with hate against gypsies maybe, but gypsies are by far not as numerous as Jews...). These are the reason Jews and anti-semitism is discussed so much. BTW there is one more. No other folk, no matter how much hated, is a subject of conspiracy theories. Feb-06-08    Tomlinsky: <brankat> Basically, if you carry the burdens of your anscestors with you everywhere that you go and impress their greater gravitas then it affords you the right to legitimately call criticism and opinion racism at any and every opportunity. Of course, it will now be pointed out that this is of course an anti-semitic statement and I am now eternally damned in their opinion. Funny old world isn't it? Feb-06-08    alexmagnus: <Tomlinsky> So you think anti-semitism exists only in the imagination of Jews? Funny opinion! A Jew myself, I can tell you it exists very much in reality. As well as all other minority hate. I beloong to way too many minorities to be told that hate against minorities doesn't exist:). Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 99) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 36 OF 99 ·  Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members. Nothing in violation of United States law. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members. No trolling. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers. Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times. See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator. NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific player only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors. All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

Copyright 2001-2025, Chessgames Services LLC